This invention relates generally to agricultural implements and particularly relates to an improved mounting and positioning apparatus for attaching a rotary agricultural implement to the frame of a conventional tillage machine.
Increasingly rotary agricultural implements are being utilized with conventional tillage machines during seed bed preparation. These rotary implements include rotary reels and rotary packer assemblies which may be mounted separately or in combination on a tillage machine. When used in combination, the reel is positioned forward of the packer assembly and aft of the plow units. The rotary reel breaks up the large clods of soil which are thrown up by the plows, and pulverizes and levels the soil following the plow units. The reel unit is also adapted to mix trash into the surface soil providing a seed bed with improved moisture absorption and retention while knocking the soil loose from the roots of the weeds uprooted by the plow units thereby reducing the need for herbicides. The rotary packer assemblies further pulverize clods, level the soil, and seal it following fertilizer application in order to fix the fertilizer in the soil. The planting operation follows the plowing, pulverizing and leveling of the soil together with the application of a fertilizer and/or herbicide.
With increasing tillage machine size, more weight is available for working the soil in seed bed preparation. This permits deeper plowing, when desired, improved clod crushing and improved soil chemical treatment and sealing. However, increasing tillage machine size results in increased fuel consumption and, since the working implements are generally rigidly mounted on the frame of these machines, limited flexibility in following ground contour. Working implements rigidly attached to these heavy frames are also highly subject to wear and breakage caused by impact obstructions such as rocks. Finally, because of the sheer size of these larger machines, adjustments in the soil working depth generally require a complicated procedure necessitating the removal and replacement of a large number of parts. For example, in one currently available tillage machine to change the spring pressure applied to the various working implements attached to the machine frame requires the removal and reinsertion of 32 bolts in adjacent sets of holes.
One example of a tillage machine employing a rotary reel in combination with a rotary packer assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,929 to Zumbahlen. In this invention the reel unit and packer assembly are each biased downwardly by spring means positioned between lower frames to which the reel and packer assembly are mounted and the upper frame. In this approach, there is no provision for changing the downward pressure applied to the reel and packer assembly for controlling the working depth. This is a very desirable feature in tillage equipment since soil conditions, such as moisture content, mellowness, hardness, etc., can change very rapidly. In addition, this invention provides no protection for the rotary working implements against damage or destruction from impact with rocks.
Another approach in soil working implement design involves the use of a U-shaped, flat leaf spring, one end of which is clamped to the tillage machine main frame with the other end having punched holes to accomodate a pillow block bearing. Spring pressure can be varied only by the incorporation, with difficulty, of shims between the frame and the spring. No provision is made in this approach for the free vertical displacement of the spring-loaded reels upon impact with a rock.